What happens when you are a sick homeschooler?

You stay home for school. Yeah, despite a sore throat, fever, and possible ear infection, nothing really changed. We have decided 2nd grade is boring, so we are finishing up a few skills and moving on to 3rd. Pablo really wants to move on to 4th, but I am sticking to my guns on doing 3rd first.

I went to a homeschooler's meeting last night and got to meet some great moms. I am feeling more and more confident in homeschooling, and will probably tend closer and closer to the unschooling side of the continuum. Give me some time, tho... this is all freaky new to me. I even confided to a friend that if we find a place in this community and Pablo makes some good friends, I could see continuing with it long term. eek.

This week my partner is off work so we can have a staycation. We were going to hit Sea World once everyone was back to school. CLOSED. Then we thought about Schlitterbahn. CLOSED. Volente Beach? CLOSED. Phooey. All are open on the weekend, but the whole point was to miss the crowds.

Now I guess the whole point is to hope that Pablo gets better so that we can at least go to Hamilton pool during the week. sigh. This vacation is not what we planned.

But since I got to take a nap today, I am really not complaining!

it is one of those days.

I want to run away from home. The boy is HARD. He is so freaking hard sometimes that I think I can't stand it anymore. He talks CONSTANTLY. He NEEDS constantly. And then I blame myself because if I were more patient, loving,peaceful, etc (ie not such a crappy mom) then he would be easy. Or maybe he wouldn't be easy but I wouldn't care because I would be all Zen about him being here to teach me a lesson and that this is my chance to freakin" EVOLVE. Stupid evolving. Who needs it?!

The baby is hard because she doesn't EVER sleep and she is a twiddler of the worst freaking kind and it drives me up the wall and I want to scream but that wouldn't help. It would just scare her and make her cry and then need to nurse to calm down and...twiddle.

My partner is hard because sometimes it seems like everything I say and do is wrong and I hate it and I wonder if anything will ever be OK again in the whole universe.

I just want to cry (again) and I want to run and hide in a hole somewhere and just not have to see anyone for a while but that's not possible cause I am the MOM and we don't get breaks. And yes, I see that saying all this is ridiculous because just today I got a 2 hour massage and new shoes and I got a break for a while. But it wasn't enough. Nothing feels like it will ever be enough because it is all so overwhelmingly HARD.

And my period is due tomorrow.

But I am sure that is completely unrelated to all this.....

Juggling

Someone please tell me how to dedicate 100% of my time to both children at once? They are into such different things, due to their ages. When I get Pablo started on something, he is immediately distracted when I try to keep the baby out of his way. They both want the attention, and I can't really give either one all of me.

I remember in the old days, not really that long ago, when I thought I should get "me time" every day. HA. Now only playing with one kiddo at a time feels like down time. HA. I'm not even getting to read books. Even just a few weeks ago I had time to read around 1000 pages a week. No problem. Now it seems like every moment is completely full. The baby is generally up till 11, and Pablo is up by 6. Argh. Down time? I am not even getting any sleep.

And did I mention the baby is starting to have nightmares? Right on schedule, just like Pablo, around 18 months the bad nightmares began. Oh yeah. Good times.

In the meantime I am breathing. It is all I can do. Just to consider each mindful breath a time for me is all I can do. At least today.

WICKED!!

We got to see WICKED this weekend, and it was awesome. If I had two lives to live, I would have gone to New York at 18 and tried to make it on Broadway. Musical theater is my passion, and I live for the times that Broadway Across America sends awesome shows our way. This year due to financial woes, we had to give up our season tickets, but we did get tickets to see Wicked. We got seats that were further back, not so great, but hey, who is complaining?! If you are in the theater, then that's good enough for me. Then a couple of weeks ago, we got a call saying they had added seats and we were on the list for a free upgrade. Did we want them? We said, sure, not really knowing what we were saying yes to, but hey, the word "upgrade" sounds good, right?

It turns out "upgrade" meant we were in the FRONT ROW. Looking up at the stage and able to see down into the pit. It was awesome. Sure, there were times that actors were so close to us that they blocked our view of other actors. Gee, what a complaint to have! I especially liked feeling like an insider when I caught 2 characters playing thumbsies 6 feet away from me as they were in a frozen position while something else was happening across the stage.

The show was FABULOUS and was nothing like the book. In this case, since the book is only mediocre, that was a good thing. Sadly, the main character was an understudy, and although she had a beautiful voice, she didn't have stamina... by the second act, you couldn't hear her anymore and only knew she was singing at times because her mouth was moving. Very disappointing since this show is all about her voice and close harmonies. Ah well, they can't all be Idena Menzel....

(A HUGE thank you to the best darned god parents in the whole wide world for watching the munchkins... get it? Munchkins?! OK, look me in the OZ and tell me you don't love these puns.)

Number Tic-Tac-Toe!

The adventures in homeschooling continue, and I am learning more each day. Yesterday we found an awesome new game in Number Patterns (Let's Investigate). It take tic-tac-toe and replaces Xs and Os with numbers. One person takes odd, the other takes evens. You place the numbers with the goal of getting 3 numbers in a row that add up to 15. It beats the heck out of Xs and Os!!

It is such a relief, since I find tic-tac-toe to be a really hard game to play with kids. Unless I play blindfolded, I either win , draw or cheat so the child can win. (Don't get me started on the ethics of cheating so the child can win... it is one I really struggle with all the freakin' time.)

Would you buy this?

In honor of the cool new bookstore in my neighborhood, I have been thinking about making and selling bookmarks. But I can't decide if anyone would buy one, and if so, for how much. What do you think?




Come on, lurkers, this is a great time to come out of the commenting closet!

Metaphors

Pablo was stalling, not wanting to go to bed, and asking a million questions, most recently about why I had drained the water out of the sink while he was "washing his hands." I told him that it wasn't the time to play in the water and when he protested with the BUT I WAS WASHING MY HANDS argument, I told him that if he would look in his heart, he would know that in reality, he had been goofing around.

Pablo paused, then asked, "How do I look in my heart?!"

I said, "It's a metaphor, Pablo. Looking in your heart means listening inside yourself to hear the real truth."

"Mama?"

"Yes, Pablo."

"Are there ever any metaphors that make sense??"

The Bike Run

Pablo, Beebz, and I have started a new fun tradition. Pablo loves to run, but Beebz hates the stroller (except to go to the pool. the NOW BROKEN neighborhood pool. I digress.). If you an figure out how to run with a 20 something pound kiddo strapped to your back without giving her brain damage, please let me know. In the mean time, we will stick to the bike run.

I put Beebz on the back of my bike, tell Pablo to pick a direction, and we go. He runs, I pedal leisurely, and Beebz yells BUMP! BUMP!, i.e. asks me to hit more bumps. A great time is had by all.

Today I got curious and measured our trek. We went to a neighborhood park. 2.83 miles, round trip. That's some serious running. Of course, by then end it was walking, stopping, panting, drinking more water and then jogging. But still fun!!

BABYSITTING SUCCESS!!

We went on a date, sans children, this weekend. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to our wonderful friends who are so great with our kids! There were no tears, not upsets, no problems at all.

OK, there was one problem. We went to see Harry Potter. It was VERY disappointing. Oh well, nothing is perfect.

However, we have tickets to see Broadway Across America's WICKED in two weeks!! This date was a perfect test run to make sure that babysitting was possible. And now, I feel so relaxed about leaving the baby. Thank you LD and Joey, and thank you NERNIE!!

BOOK VICTORIOUS!

Finally, finally, FINALLY, we have a library card that is worth something. Sadly, we live in a suburb. Not a great one. Don't get me wrong, I love our house, just not the location. However, we have had to buy library memberships because we were not in a municipality which supported our area. $45 or so a year. For a library that was just ok. And then our area got incorporated into another town, giving us a free library membership to their library. I was excited until we went there and realized that I own more books than that library does. Ok, I am exaggerating. But not by much.

Last week our neighbor told us that there is something called a TEXSHARE card, which allows people to borrow books outside their city limits. We got one, then went on Saturday to the closest Austin library. It turns out that we didn't even need the card! We could just get an Austin library card even though we don't live within the city limits! Apparently the laws had changed(before when we had checked it out, the price to get an out of city card was pretty high). And the library was AWESOME. There were actual books there. From this century. For my kids (and for me)!! They have a whole aisle just for youth nonfiction. My worries about finding homeschooling materials have evaporated. I cannot say how excited I am. And did I mention all this is FREE?!

AND, it gets better. A new very cool used bookstore just opened near our house. Near enough to ride our bikes there. It is super family friendly, with a whole children's area, toys, craft projects, etc. All books are super cheap. This is the best book weekend EVER!!!!